Concord Faces Road Test at Glenville State Thursday Night

Concord Stats - Glenville State Stats - Live Stats - Live Video - Complete Game Notes

ATHENS, W.Va. - The Concord University football team opens the 2021 season against Mountain East Conference foe Glenville State 7:00 p.m. Thursday at Morris Stadium.

LIVE COVERAGE
Stats: The Glenville State Sports Information Department will provide live in-game statistics for Thursday's contest
Video: Live streaming video will also be provided for the game courtesy of GSC.

RECORDS
CU was 1-0 in its only game during the spring season as it defeated West Virginia Wesleyan, 52-14, on the road.

Glenville State was winless in four games during the spring season as it dropped contests to UNC-Pembroke, Charleston, West Virginia State and West Liberty.

WHAT A GAME IT WAS
Several single-game marks were broken in Concord's lone game during the spring season. Junior quarterback Jack Mangel made his first start in the Maroon and Gray at West Virginia Wesleyan. The Athens, Georgia native became the first CU signal caller since Brian Novak in his final career game in 2016 to throw for 300 yards and five touchdowns in the same game. Novak went for 403 yards and five scores at West Virginia State five years ago. In Mangel's start at Wesleyan, he tossed for 310 yards and five touchdowns. Fifth-year senior wide receiver Tywan Pearce tied his career high with 10 catches at Wesleyan for 149 yards and two touchdowns—his second career multi-touchdown game and first since 2018 at West Virginia State. In his first game as Concord's offensive coordinator, Brian Ferguson helped CU's offense go over 400 yards for the just the second time in the last eight games with 408 yards at WVWC. The 52 points scored by the Mountain Lions at Wesleyan were the most since posting 52 in a victory over West Virginia State to close the 2015 season.

DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE DEFENSE
In the victory over WVWC, the Maroon and Gray forced two turnovers to run its streak to 14 consecutive games with at least one forced turnover. Senior defensive back Marcellus Saint picked off his first career pass in his first game at CU while junior linebacker Vonte Pannell pounced on a fumble on a kickoff return. It was the first career takeaway for the Lynchburg, Virginia native. Concord bottled up West Virginia Wesleyan as the Bobcats gained just 224 yards. It was the fewest allowed by a CU defense since stymying UNC-Pembroke for just 144 yards at the end of the 2016 season. Ten of the 11 starters from the Wesleyan game return to the CU defense this fall.

THE GANG IS BACK TOGETHER
Speaking of that Concord defense, the 10 returning starters have combined to play in 154 games led by sixth-year senior defensive back Jonathan Roebuck who has seen action in 32 games at CU. The defense features four other players that have played in at least 20 games as a Mountain Lion: fifth-year senior linebacker Dwain Porterfield (23 games), senior defensive back Zion Barnette (22), fifth-year senior defensive lineman JT Turner (21) and senior linebacker Tylen Fowler (20). Senior defensive lineman Nathan Lease will play in his 20^th career at Concord on Thursday night. At Wesleyan in March, Lease picked up a career-best eight tackles. Barnette has yet to miss a game in the Maroon and Gray having played each game since the opener at West Virginia Wesleyan in 2018.

RECORD BOOK WATCH
Pearce goes into the Glenville State game tied for fourth with his former teammate Brandon Plyler (2015-19) in career receptions at Concord. Pearce sits at 149 catches after his explosion at Wesleyan. Pearce's reception count is the seventh-most among Division II players, and with five catches against Glenville State, he would pass Rayshaune Ward for third in receptions at Concord. In 2019 at GSC, Pearce hauled in nine catches. The North Kissimmee, Florida native begins the 2021 season needing 254 yards receiving to become the sixth player in school history to amass 2,000 yards in catches. Porterfield needs 103 tackles to break into the top 10 in career tackles at CU. The Raleigh, North Carolina native has 110 career stops. He was on pace to go over 100 tackles in 2019 before injury forced him to miss the final two games of the season.

FIRST ACT
In the last five full seasons Concord has played, four of the season's first games have been decided by one possession with CU going 2-2 in those contests. In 2015, the Mountain Lions fell 29-28 at West Liberty. The following season the Maroon and Gray clipped WLU in the season's first game, 32-25. The 2017 season opener saw the Mountain Lions lose 23-18 to Wesleyan in which Roebuck returned an interception for a touchdown in his first career game. Senior kicker Luke Walls hit a 40-yard field goal as the clock expired to defeat WVWC on the road to start 2018. In that same game, junior wide receiver Kris Copeland accounted for 229 yards of offense (141 rushing, 88 receiving) and three touchdowns in the win at Wesleyan. The last time Concord opened up with Glenville State to begin a season was 2014 when the Mountain Lions doubled up GSC, 54-27.

IT'S A FOUR-QUARTER GAME
Three of the five meetings between Concord and Glenville State have been decided deep into the fourth quarter, or in the case of the 2019 meeting, in overtime. Despite having just 236 yards of offense, CU got a late defensive touchdown to force overtime at Morris Stadium two years ago, but came up short 27-20. The year prior the Mountain Lions scored 20 unanswered points in the fourth quarter, including another defensive touchdown, but ran out of time in a 41-35 Glenville State win in Athens. At GSC in 2015, Concord rallied from down 20-7 to take a 25-23 lead, but the Pioneers scored with 16 seconds left to nip the Mountain Lions, 30-25.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
2- Seasons spent at Concord by GSC head coach Mike Kellar and defensive coordinator Brian Hill (2009-10). Kellar as the head coach and Hill as the defensive line coach.

9- Pass break-ups needed by Roebuck to break into the top 10 all-time at CU. Roebuck begins the season with 10 career PBUs.

21- Years since Concord last won at Glenville State, 34-10 victory in 2000.

GLENVILLE STATE AT A GLANCE
Morehead State transfer Deandre Clayton is listed as the starter at quarterback for the Pioneers. In the spring, Clayton's listed backup Tim Heltzel threw five touchdowns to four interceptions. Glenville State only averaged 246 yards of offense during its four-game spring season as the Pioneers were shutout by Charleston and scored a single touchdown against UNC-Pembroke. Veteran wide receiver Javon Butler tallied six catches for 61 yards and a touchdown in 2019 against Concord. Of the 44 players listed on GSC's two-deep, 29 are either freshmen or sophomores.